Photo Courtesy of SoHo Alliance

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and CitiBank have plans to install a CitiBike rental station in a SoHo memorial park, a park which commemorates four individuals who died in a fire, sacrificing their lives to save others’. This decision has been to the dismay—and outright anger—of many community members, and it’s not the first incident of outrage directed the DOT over proposed CitiBike placements.

(by Alissa Fleck)

Father Fagan Park (corner of Prince St. and Sixth Ave.), according to a SoHo Alliance press release, is named for Father Richard Fagan formerly of nearby St. Anthony’s Church, who gave his life in a rectory fire while rescuing two people. The park also contains three pear trees, which commemorate three firefighters who died in the line of duty, extinguishing a 1994 “SoHo blaze.”

Community Board 2, of which the park is a part, also ranks extremely low in terms of city green space, the Alliance reports. The board asked the DOT not to further burden the area’s limited green space with cumbersome bike rental stations.

The DOT has ignored all community and political pleas and remains steadfast in their decision, says the Alliance. Further, the Alliance calls the department’s actions “thick-headed, arrogant and disrespectful.”

St. Anthony Church Pastor Father Joseph Lorenzo said he hopes the DOT will opt not to cheapen the park with the rental station.

This is not the first time proposed CitiBike placement has been met with vigorous opposition. NY Press previously reported on plans to install docking stations in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza across from the United Nations building. Opponents said it would disrupt the atmosphere of the plaza and create unnecessary congestion.

Victoria Weil, president of Friends of Bogardus Garden, was also not happy about the station planned for the pedestrian plaza at Chambers and Reade Streets her group oversees. She told the Tribeca Trib she saw accidents on the horizon in the small, already cluttered space.

A member of Community Board 1, which encompasses Duane Park, said the proposed station for that park would “ruin the whole aesthetic.”

While the DOT spent months listening to community concerns, Kate Fillin-Yeh, director of the Bike Share program, told CB1 they were trying to install a station every 1,000 feet, which does not leave a lot of space for dissent.

The Tribeca Trib reports there is a great deal of controversy over whether the DOT and Bike Share program actually listened to community concerns and took the most contested docking stations off the to-build list.

NY Press reached out to CitiBike to find out how they had addressed community concerns, and whether they thought every proposed area would ultimately rally a certain amount of opposition. The Press did not immediately hear back on these questions.

A camerawoman outside of the Patz residence on Prince Street.

When a reporter on Prince St. told a Soho resident yesterday that he was there to write about the Etan Patz murder, the resident gave him a typical response: “I hope when you go to bed tonight you’re a real stressed motherf***er.”

(By Paul Bisceglio.)

The resident’s antagonism reflects the community’s growing hostility towards the media around the Patz family’s home. Journalists’ cars and vans have crowded the intersection of Prince and Wooster Streets since last Friday, when 51-year-old New Jersey resident Pedro Hernandez was arrested  for murdering 6-year-old Etan 33 years after he disappeared on his way to a bus stop on nearby West Broadway.

In 1979, Patz’s family and the Soho community relied on media outlets to spread the word about their missing son. In the wake of Hernandez’s arrest, the family has repeatedly asked journalists to leave them alone. Tension between the press and the community is palpable.

“They hate us,” one berated reporter said. He cited multiple incidents of verbal abuse directed at journalists around the scene, and even an attempted attack with a wheelchair.

Many community members were happy to affirm their discontent. Jaime Gutierrez, founder of the blog sohonyc.com, said that after so long, Soho was ready to let the story go. Another resident said that the reporters should “get real jobs” and leave the family at peace. A young street vendor put it more bluntly: “They’re f***ing goons,” she said of the media.

“I feel a bit like a goon,” one photographer admitted when told about the charge. He thought that the coverage was excessive, and disagreed with some reporters’ invasive tactics – shadowing family members on the streets, badgering them for quotes, looking through windows.

The photographer, however, emphasized that the choice was out of his hands. He was told where to be and was simply doing his job.

Other journalists were more defensive about their place in the community. One reporter noted that the media’s presence pressures police to resolve the case, so it does more good than harm. Another mentioned that journalists were providing details that many community members wanted to hear.

More than anything, though, the journalists were hot and bored. Sitting in their cars for hours in 90 degree weather, frustrated that they would be in the same place tomorrow just waiting for something to happen, most were as eager as Patz’s family to put the story to rest.

In what should come as no shock at all, retail mega-giant Apple is set to expand one of its New York stores; this time, in SoHo.

Apple SoHo, at 103 Prince St., is set to re-open with an additional 5,000 sq. ft. in July 2012

According to Real Estate Weekly, the building was renovated in 2001 to utilize about half of its 30,000 square feet space. Until 2009, the back end of103 Prince St. had been occupied by the United States Post Office.

However, when the space became available, Apple ceased an opportunity to claim a stake of downtown for itself. The Apple SoHo store, which has been open for four years and operating in the space left vacant by the USPS, is set to receive a 5,000 square foot expansion (laid flat, that’s a 50×100 foot space). The renovations comes at the heels of a $20M expansion by Real Estate Space and Investment Firm Imperium Capital. .

“After Apple completes this renovation, we believe it will be the company’s most attractiveManhattanconsumer location,” said Daniel Glaser, co-founder and managing partner of Imperium Capital, who acquired the building in 2011.

While construction is underway, Apple has temporarily relocated to72 Greene St. However, when the Prince St. location re-opens this July, Imperium Capital anticipates nothing but growth for their star techno. tenants.

“We are very bullish onSoHo, especially thePrince Streetcorridor. We look forward to Apple’s continued growth and success in this world-class retail location,” added Samuel Schneider, co-founder and managing partner of Imperium Capital.